Anyone who follows this blog knows that I am a big-time hiker and I am an Arizona local. So, it might come as some surprise, that I have never hiked a bit of the Arizona Trail (AZT) until this year! Due to my job, I will likely never be able to thru-hike the AZT, but I am determined to work on section hiking it. In fact, I’ve made it a travel goal of mine to complete the AZT via section hiking! This post represents my first step towards that goal, as Passage 07 Las Cienegas was the first section that I have been able to complete.
This part of the AZT is the perfect place to get started, for both intermediate and expert hikers. That’s because Las Cienegas is a fairly level hike, if long. And it’s length won’t require you to backpack as long as you can arrange for a shuttle and you start early enough. It is also a wonderful introduction to the shrublands of the Sonoran Desert, which need a lot more love than they get.
TL;DR If you want to start section hiking the AZT, consider Las Cienegas as a starting place.
Need to Know
(c) ABR 2020
Trail Length: 13 miles one way (we clocked 13.5 miles)
Difficulty: Moderate- 13 miles is a long distance, but this trail doesn’t have a lot of elevation change making it fairly flat.
Facilities: Yes at the Gabe Zimmerman trailhead, but not at the southern access point. No facilities along the trail.
Season: October-May
On the Trail
Part One
(c) ABR 2020
We started to the south of the Las Cienegas Passage, and since the second part of our shuttle was my little car, we decided that the best thing to do would be to hike up the dirt road to the trailhead. This wasn’t a huge addition to our hike (about 0.6 miles), and it wasn’t difficult, so if you don’t have the kind of car that can manage the road, no worries.
(c) ABR 2020
Once we got started, the first part of Passage 07 curved its way through the hills. This was also where we got our glimpse of the pools of water for which this part of the AZT is named. After the major drought that we had this year, they were unsurprisingly low on water. But these are still essential oases for the plants and animals of the desert.